Just Bench Everyone: Fresno State Game Review

The rust buster to end all rust busters. Or at least, it should be.

First things first, can everyone who was in attendance at Autzen Stadium on Saturday agree that that was the hottest 75 degree day in the history of planet Earth?

I’ve been scorched at games in September before, but I don’t think I’ve been that taken by surprise by gameday weather since The 2013 Cal Monsoon. 

If we can agree on anything today, let’s start with that. Autzen was sweatier than advertised.

And all the sweat from the sun was only compounded by the sweat from the stress of a 31-24 come-from-behind Oregon victory over those scrappy Fresno State Bulldogs.

The opener is always the game where you learn the most about your team while also learning the least about your team, and it’s safe to say that the takeaways from the fanbase have been far-reaching, panic-filled, and hallmarked by the desperate search for a scapegoat.

I’ll make this first part really simple, and then I’ll move on to more interesting stuff: 

Maybe you think that Anthony Brown Jr. is a trash quarterback, and that Ty Thompson should replace him immediately. Fine. Let’s do it. 

Or maybe you think that there were far more glaring issues around him—much like the Fiesta Bowl—and that we should focus on those rather than convincing ourselves that a new QB is a magic bullet that will fix everything. Fine. Let’s do that.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s actually talk about the game.

Mario Cristobal has told us time and again that, “everything starts up front,” but the 2021 O-line no longer has the excuse of youth, and they certainly can’t claim they don’t have the talent.

Cristobal & Co. rotated six/seven/eight different linemen throughout the game, and often shifted them across the line—swapping guards for tackles and vice versa—looking for a winning combination. Success was hard to come by, to say the least.

While the big boys did fine enough when run-blocking, their pass protection was quite possibly the most disappointing aspect of the entire 60-minutes of football.

AB consistently found himself in a collapsing pocket—to put it mildly—and the supposedly overmatched Fresno State defensive line manhandled the outer edges of a 4/5-star caliber offensive line that Cristobal has worked so hard to put at the center of this program’s identity.

The Ducks gave up three sacks (one of those being a blindside strip sack) for a total of -11 yds, gave up an additional eight tackles for loss, and Fresno also batted a ball down at the line of scrimmage by virtue of basically living in the backfield.

In the first half, Brown adjusted pretty well to the lack of a clean pocket. He was decisive when he took off running after the play broke down, and he even found an extra half second here and there to sling a couple great throws, going 5/7 for 77 yards—the most impressive of all the completions being a 30-yard scoring strike to Johnny Johnson III, in stride.

If only to prove that I am capable of levying well-earned criticism toward AB, I think it’s clear that he was less poised in the second half. As the pocket continued to break down, and he continued to try to find some other way to problem-solve, he ran into a drought of success. 

Brown was less decisive as the game went on for sure, but he certainly made up for it by the end as he showed patience and a high football IQ on his 30-yard game-winning touchdown run.

We ran the ball 49 times yesterday, and threw it 24 times. Whether you like that “balance” or not, Oregon’s box score could very well look like that for the rest of the season. But if they can’t manage to find enough stability and continuity up front to protect Brown for a mere twentysomething passes per game, then things are going to get even worse than what we saw on Saturday.

The next-most disappointing position group of the day was the secondary. We all kind of expected a drop in play due to some key absences, but some questionable defensive playcalling made it seem like not having Jamal Hill or DJ James could be the least of Oregon’s problems.

DC Tim DeRuyter made his Oregon debut by playing a Charmin babysoft zone that looked way too much like something 2020 Avalos would have called. The cushions that the Ducks gave to Fresno’s receivers helped Jake Haener complete 30 of his 43 throws for 298 yards and a painful 9.9 yard per completion. 

Smarter defensive minds than me would be able to tell you why the second level of the defense seemed to be prime real estate for the Bulldogs, but FSU grabbed 16 of their 23 first downs by exploiting that 10-12 yard section of the defense with ease.

I always expected that James and Hill would return for the Ohio State game—and we’ll find out for sure from Mario sometime today—but if Timmy D can’t scheme up some man coverage, or some corner blitzes, or anything other than a swiss cheese zone, then I’m not sure personnel alone can put up a fight next week against the two best receivers in the country.

Last week, I invented a Playbook Usage Metric that I used to analyze how much of Joe Moorhead’s offense we had seen to this point, and to what level of efficiency we had seen that volume of plays executed at:

I projected that we saw ~66% of the playbook last year, and that we should expect about the same in the Fresno State game. I also hoped that we would see everything be executed at a much higher level, but it’s clear that Saturday was all about busting the rust.

I don’t have some crazy belief that the other 34% of Joe Moorhead’s playbook is world-ending, or that it will solve everything, but we know from his time at Penn State that he has way more tricks and stunts up his sleeve that we still have yet to see in Eugene.

One play that was glaringly missing was the, “DJ Johnson Play,” where we send the tight end in motion, run a zone read out of the pistol, and then hit the big man on the run. That play was a touchdown maker in 2020, and it seems like we could’ve used one or five more of those on Saturday.

Upon watching the replay, I noticed that we did run that base formation, and even that same tight end motion with DJ a few times in the game, but Johnson was a little late to his spot in both place I could find, and he literally ran into the offensive line before he was even able to step into his route.

I love DJ, and I know he didn’t get to play in camp until basically the last day, but surely we’ve practiced this play with..other tight ends?

I’m not sure, maybe we are hoping that we can make Ohio State think that we lost that page of the playbook? That’d be some real seven dimensional chess.

Justin Flowe was an absolute bright spot in a game that desperately needed one. He notched fourteen total tackles and a key forced fumble to go along with his pure passion and absolutely menacing neck roll. He looked like the five-star he was promised to be. 

Camden Lewis also found himself some leg strength over the summer, and now he’s a touchback machine. He struck all four of his extra points true as hell, and hit a 25-yarder on top of it. In a game where the margin of victory was seven points, he was the Seven Point Man.

To round this whole thing out, I’ll just welcome you all to the Anthony Brown Stat Corner.

AB’s adjusted completion percentage (accounting for the NUMEROUS drops he suffered from his receivers) was a stellar 83.3%. He threw for 176 yards, one touchdown, and he remained interception-free on the day. Additionally, he ran very well, carrying the ball 16 times for 56 yards and the game-winning TD.

Just watch the highlight, you’ll see the same flashes of magic that I still see.

Not too shabby for his first start in 700 days.

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My advice to Oregon as they head into Week Two? Be a goldfish. Have a ten second memory.

You can’t check any of this baggage on the plane to Columbus.

Go Ducks.